


Dear Mr. Stolichnaya

by lioneatingdragon



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff, JUST A WHOLE BUNCH OF FLUFF, M/M, i'm not really good at fluff so this is probably kinda shit idk how I feel about it tbh, jily, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-13
Updated: 2016-07-13
Packaged: 2018-07-23 19:48:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7477566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lioneatingdragon/pseuds/lioneatingdragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If you ever find yourself thinking that alcohol is your sole saviour in the universe - don't.<br/>It's fun for a while, until you wake up the next day and start regretting every decision you've ever made.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dear Mr. Stolichnaya

If Lily were to be honest, it wasn’t one of her proudest moments. Sure, she’d done it many times before, as was expected after every (successful) Quidditch game, and she never did anything overly embarrassing or idiotic, but she had never, _ever_ gotten drunk to the point where she’d forgotten a – as she would later find out – quite significant chunk of the night.

Later she would regret her decision vehemently, especially after the scene that ensued the following morning, but at the time, her common sense was severely clouded by anger at James and his stupid, well, _self_ , at Severus and his death eater friends, at Voldemort for just generally being alive, and most importantly at herself for feeling so utterly helpless in everything that was going on. And that bottle was staring at her, blatantly beckoning and seducing her, and _how_ could she refuse such a charming young bottle? Especially now that Remus, who had been not-so-subtly keeping an eye on her, had disappeared from the common room, and Sirius in turn had appeared in front of her, the bottle she had been eying materialising in his hand.

Wait. No! This was not good at all!

“And what do we have here?” Sirius grinned, leaning on the wall adjacent to Lily. “A lonely bottle of vodka so innocently and not suspiciously at all sitting near a Lily Evans, who is coincidentally in dire need of alcohol? Now that doesn’t sound like it has _Remus Lupin_ written all over it at all.”

“Of course it doesn’t.” She had deadpanned. “Because it has _Sirius Black_ written all over it instead.”

At the time she had felt like a great injustice had befallen her, that that night out of all nights, Sirius Black had decided to join forces with Remus in some gallant mission to save their friend from evil. It turned out that he hadn’t, but the following morning Lily really rather wished that he had.

He had grinned at her statement, but had given her no sign to indicate whether she was right or wrong.

“Look, Black, I was about to indulge in a _very_ romantic date with the o’-so-charming Mr. Stolichnaya, who is definitely getting impatient and rather appalled by the treatment he is getting in your care,” she pointed at Sirius lazily, who was, in fact, not really handling the bottle like glass bottles ought to be handled. “So cut it out with the ‘I’m gonna save you from your future mistakes’ crap and pass the damn bottle over!” She had grown quite indignant by the time she was done, an angry flush colouring her cheeks and the last couple of words spat out through her teeth.

“Dear God, Evans,” Sirius gasped, ceasing passing the bottle from hand to hand in a dangerous manner and staring up at Lily. “What gave you the absurd idea that I was trying to save you from anything?”

The amount of relief Lily felt at that was quite ridiculous, truth be told.

“Although…” And the relief was instantly replaced with annoyance. “Your doubting me has made me reconsider if I want to share this with you.”

“Stop playing around, Black, we both know you left that there to tempt me and make Remus’s self-proclaimed role of my protector more difficult.”

“Oh really? What if I just wanted to enjoy a bottle of vodka all to myself on this fine night?”

Lily raised her eyebrow incredulously. “Muggle vodka, Black?”

“I-”

“Speaking of, how on earth did you get your hands on muggle alcohol?”

“Er…” Sirius swallowed uncomfortably, pushing himself off the wall and beginning to walk in the direction of the portrait hole. “Th-that’s irrelevant! Come, my friend, we must go and get absolutely smashed!”

Something about the way Sirius avoided her gaze betrayed where he got the alcohol from.

“You got that from my trunk, didn’t you?!” Lily accused, following him closely.

“What? Don’t be silly, Lily! You know I can’t get into your and James’s dormitory, let alone your room!” He climbed through the portrait hole. “You’re such a silly Lily.”

“Firstly, never call me that again and secondly,” She climbed out of the portrait hole and stood next to Sirius, arms crossed. “You can keep your secrets if you want. But be warned: I will find out what they are some day!”

Sirius shook his head in astounded amusement and chuckled. “Is that a threat, Evans?”

“It can be.” Lily challenged, lifting her chin up.

“Oh Lily,” Sirius sighed, wrapping his arm around Lily’s shoulders and leaning down so that their faces were level. “You really are just so silly.” And with that he straightened up, patted Lily on the head, much to her distaste, and took off down the corridor.

“Hey! Where on earth are you going?!” Lily called behind him, desperately trying to catch up without breaking into a run. Damn long-legged people.

“The astronomy tower, where else?”

Of course, the most obvious place anyone could go to to get drunk. Lily should have known. Although she supposed that it was such an obvious place to drink that hardly anybody went there to do so anymore, therefore it wasn’t obvious at all. It was kind of genius actually. Of course, she wouldn’t go admitting that she thought so to Sirius anytime soon.

“You are _such_ idiot.” She muttered once having caught up with him. To her disappointment, Sirius only laughed.

* * *

It turned out that Sirius’s tolerance for alcohol was, well, quite shit. He was already drunk as all hell after half an hour whereas Lily was hardly drunk at all (or so she liked to think). It wouldn’t have been much of a problem if it wasn’t for the fact that Sirius was the whiniest, clingiest, biggest piss-baby of a drunk she had ever seen.

It started after he had a sudden and unexpected silent moment. Lily should have known that it was suspicious, considering that he had not stopped talking ever since they got there, but it was at that very moment that her mind decided to zone out, leaving her completely indifferent to Sirius’s actions.

Just as Lily was starting to forget her surroundings and the fact that she wasn’t alone, she felt something drop onto her shoulder, giving her a nasty shock. Shrieking, she looked down to find that it was Sirius’s head, the forehead of which Sirius was now banging on Lily’s shoulder repeatedly and whimpering.

“… Er, Black?” Lily started uneasily, attempting to push Sirius’s head off herself, and failing. “What on earth are you doing?”

“Oh, Lily,” Sirius complained, his voice slightly muffled by Lily’s shirt because no matter how hard she tried to push him off he refused to budge. “It’s just so unfair, you know?”

“What is, Black?” Lily sighed, reluctantly deciding to humour him.

“It’s just that, I try so hard… and you know, there’s always room for improverment but I- and also it’s just so scary and I’m trying very hard but...” He suddenly stopped mumbling and straightened up, looking Lily in the eyes. “I want to read people’s minds.”

For a moment Lily thought (and hoped) that he was joking and was about to burst out laughing when she saw how serious Sirius looked, which just made _her_ want to bang her head against _his_ shoulder repeatedly. “What on earth are you on about?”

Sirius sighed and leaned back against the wall once more, his eyes strangely interested in the ceiling. “Remus.”

“Oh God.” Lily breathed out, already on the search for Mr. Stolichnaya, who seemed to have disappeared from her grasp at some point.

“No, Lily, I really try so hard to make him see-”

“Here we go.”

“-like I make it sooo obvious-”

“I am not _nearly_ drunk enough for this.”

“-but he’s just so STUPID!” Sirius complained, his head having found it’s way onto Lily’s shoulder, but this without all the unnecessary head banging.

“Dear God, Black,” Lily commented after her precious Mr. Stolichnaya was back in her possession once more. “You’ve got a serious first-world problem right there.”

“That’s what I’m telling you!” Sirius whined, banging his head on Lily’s shoulder once. “And don’t make fun of me.”

“I wouldn’t dare.” Lily claimed, taking a swig from the bottle and choking as soon as she did so. “Holy shit,” she spluttered while Sirius clapped her back gently. “I think I just killed myself.”

“Don’t be silly, Lily,” Sirius said lazily. “It was just one gulp.”

Lily glared at him from the corner of her eye, as she was still hunched over and trying desperately to control her breathing. “How is it,” she uttered, wiping away the tears that had streamed down her face during her (according to Lily) near-death experience. “That your tolerance for alcohol is absolutely shit but you manage to down a quarter of a vodka bottle without so much as wincing?”

Sirius winked, wearing that shit-eating grin he always wore. “It’s a secret that’s been passed down in the Black family for centuries. You could say that it’s in my genes.”

“Even though I know that’s bullshit I can’t help thinking that there’s some truth to that, from what you’ve told me of your family.” Lily admitted, narrowing her eyes at Sirius.

“It’s true! Take my cousin Bella, for example. Twenty-seven years old and already an alcoholic...” Sirius trailed off sniffing and dabbing at his eyes with his sleeve.

“Heartbreaking, I’m sure.” Lily stated flatly, raising her eyebrow at Sirius’s fake display of sadness about one of his most hated family members. “But anyway, back to how you’re completely in love with Remus and a total idiot about it?”

This invoked a couple moments of shocked silence from Sirius, in which he stared at Lily, open-mouthed. But, naturally, he soon remembered who he was and responded in the way he knew best: astounding immaturity.

“You’re the one who’s in love and a total idiot about it.” He claimed, stealing away the bottle of alcohol, which Lily still had firmly in her grasp, and drank two big gulps from it.

“Oh yeah?” Lily questioned as she straightened up, seemingly nonchalant, but, to Sirius’s satisfaction, there was a nervous tone to her voice. “And with whom might I be in love with?”

“James.” Sirius stated confidently.

“James?” Lily scoffed, eyeing Sirius incredulously.

“Mhm.”

“That’s...” Lily stopped, realizing she had no idea what to say to that. Thankfully, she was distracted by Sirius, who was looking more and more out of it by the second. She glanced down at the bottle of vodka, which, apart from being sandwiched between Sirius’s lifted knees and being lightly held on to by his steadily slipping hand, didn’t have much support at all. Before it could smash into a million tiny pieces and severely injure Sirius while it did so, Lily grabbed the bottle and turned to Sirius. “How much of that did you drink?!”

“Like, this much...” Sirius brought up his hand, intending to show Lily how much using his thumb and forefinger, but then quickly realized that he wasn’t in the least sure of how much he had drunk, so he let his hand drop and mumbled: “A lot.”

“Okay, I think you’ve had enough.” Lily decided as she leaned on the wall next to Sirius, to which he simply rolled his head to the left so he could look at Lily. When Lily was situated comfortably (or as comfortable it was possible to get while leaning on and sitting on the hard stone of the astronomy tower) she took a swig from the bottle in her grasp and grimaced.

“You damn hypro.. hyper’crite...” Sirius muttered, chuckling softly.

“I am not a hypocrite!” Lily protested, her words noticeably more slurred than they were seconds ago. “I would be a hypocrite if I told you you’re too drunk to drink and continued to drink myself while being exactly as drunk as you are.” She took another sip. “Which I’m not!”

“Mhm.” Sirius smirked, eying Lily with amusement. “You know Evans, I’m starting to think your torelelance for alc’hol is worse than mine.”

“Impossible.”

“Sure it is. You just have a veeeery delayed reac-tion...”

“That is not correct.” Lily maintained, but she had to admit she was starting to feel extremely woozy.

Neither one of them said anything after that, both of them just staring ahead at what they could see of the sky through the arches. It was then that Lily realized that neither one of them was in any shape to go back to their respective dormitories, which was something sober Lily would have been moderately worried about, but not even the slightest part of drunk Lily cared. Drunk Lily was more concerned about the fact that the stars were pretty, that Sirius was an idiot and that she really wanted to make out with James Potter’s face.

“What if he doesn’t like me?” Sirius wailed out of nowhere.

“Who?” Lily muttered incoherently, shifting her gaze onto Sirius slowly. “James?”

Sirius smirked and looked up at Lily, smugly. “Now why would you think I mean James, Lily?”

“Because shut up.” Lily grumbled, looking away and hoping against all hope that Sirius would not be able to see how red she was in this light.

Sirius laughed and turned his attention away from Lily, clearly thinking he had embarrassed her enough. “I meant Remus.”

“What about me?” Came a voice from the stairs leading up to the astronomy tower.

“Remus!” Lily exclaimed, recognising who the voice belonged to instantly. She watched him come out of the shadows with a wide smile on her face, which weakened when she saw a figure follow him into the light, even more so when she realized who it was. “And… James?”

“Alright, Evans?” James grinned, his hand habitually making his way to his hair.

“Oh I don’t think she’s alright at all, Prongs.” Sirius muttered. “See, Lily here has an itch that only-”

The rest of that sentence went unsaid, for Lily had pounced on Sirius, who was quite literally dying from laughter, in order to silence him.

“Doesn’t anyone think it odd,” Lily asked loudly, over Sirius’s muffled laughter and cries (she had both her hands clamped firmly over his mouth). “How increlibilly fond of wolves Sirius is? I mean they’re very pretty animals but-”

“Are you drunk?” James asked with an amused facial expression.

“No.” Lily and Sirius answered simultaneously after Sirius had hurriedly removed Lily’s palms from his face, both in a very drunken manner.

Remus and James shared a look of both poorly concealed hilarity and slight worry, in which they seemed to come to an understanding of what needed to be done.

“Alright, Lily, come on.” Remus sighed, taking Lily’s arm and wrapping it around his shoulders as James headed over to Sirius. “Let’s get you to bed.”

“But I don’t wanna go to bed.” Lily complained, pouting up at Remus as he raised her off the ground. “Let me go! There are still so many things I want to do.”

“Like what?” Remus asked, attempting to distract her as he steered them towards the stairs from the astronomy tower.

“Well I can’t tell you, can I?” Lily giggled, poking Remus in the neck with her index finger.

“And why not?” Remus demanded, a hint of being genuinely offended in his voice. “Careful, we’re about to walk down stairs.”

“Because it’s a secret, silly!”

“Ooh, teacher, teacher, I know!” Sirius piped up from behind Lily and Remus, scaring the life out of Lily. She hadn’t heard them walking, so she had assumed that he and James were still up on the tower. “She wants to do unspeakable things with-”

“Black I will murder your life!”

“Wait, what?” James asked quizzically, his attention to the conversation rising by 125 percent as soon as he heard that Lily ‘wants to do unspeakable things’ with someone.

“A little guy I like to call-” Sirius continued on, disregarding James’s question completely.

“I will fight you with my bare hands if I must!” Lily exclaimed, turning her head violently in order to look at Sirius.

Sirius leaned forward as much as he could without falling down the stairs. “You, me, bottom of the stairs, 1 minute.”

“You’re on!” Lily agreed vehemently, whipping her whole body round and as a result disturbing Remus’s balance. Fortunately they had already reached the bottom of the stairs, otherwise they would have probably ended up in a heap on the floor, with many broken bones.

“Okay, Lily,” Remus said tiredly, rotating Lily and steering her down the hallway by the shoulders as James dragged Sirius away in the opposite direction. “There will be no fighting in an empty hallway in the middle of the night.”

“Killjoy.” Lily complained, sticking her tongue out at Remus.

“I’d like to think of myself as more of a,” He smirked down at Lily in a way that told her he was enjoying her suffering a bit too much. “A watchful guardian, always there to ruin the fun just as you’re about to do something stupid.” And with that he looked away from Lily, leaving her trying to burn holes through the side of his face.

She refused. It was absolutely unjust! She was not done with this night whatsoever, and she refused to let Remus save her from decisions she would later regret. Granted, her head was spinning, she was so hot it felt like her skin was melting off and her eyes were closing off their own accord, but she would not be satisfied unless she made Remus regret ever meeting her. And she knew just the thing.

“So, Remus,” She started nonchalantly, looking down at her feet so Remus wouldn’t see her smile. “Since we have all this time to talk about things, what say you and me have a little chat about Sirius.”

She looked up at him then to gauge his reaction, and oh was what she saw satisfying.

His mouth was slightly ajar from shock, his eyes wide open with panic and he was _visibly sweating_. Oh if Lily had known all it took was to mention Sirius to make Remus this uncomfortable she would have done it ages ago.

“What,” He swallowed, looking ahead in a way that was so blatantly an attempt to avoid eye-contact with Lily it was almost sad. “What about him?”

“Well, I was thinking we could start with the fuck-eyes.”

“The fuck-eyes?”

“Yeah, you know, the way you two constantly look at each other as if you want to jump each others-”

“Okay,” Remus breathed out, stopping and turning them around. “James!”

James, who looked about ready to jump out of a window was already walking back towards them, Sirius cackling like a deranged hyena next to him. “Yeah, we’re coming.”

Lily, knowing that she had been victorious, looked at Remus smugly and smirked in the exact same way he had before. “Giving up, are we?”

Chuckling under his breath, Remus glanced at Lily in both a resigned and amused manner. “You’re a real witch, you know that?”

Lily pretended to think for a moment. “I like to think of myself as more of a chaotic keeper of the balance.”

“All right,” Remus nodded. “If that’s how you want to play this game.”

“Oh, Remus, this game is already over and I owned your ass!”

Remus opened his mouth to retort, but they had already reached a very frustrated James and a very amused Sirius.

“He’s that weak?” Lily asked Sirius incredulously, the ‘he’ she was referring to being James.

Sirius sighed and patted James on the back. “Poor guy isn’t what he used to be.”

Ignoring Sirius, James breathed in deeply and looked at Remus pleadingly. “Switch?”

“Yes please.” Remus agreed gratefully, all too eager to remove Lily off his person and send her in James’s direction. Lily would have been offended, but she was too preoccupied by the fact that she had apparently forgotten how to walk. Luckily, spotting the disaster about to happen, James ran up to her and placed her arm around his shoulders.

“Oh, my hero.” Lily muttered, only half sarcastically (of course, she would never let James know that).

“Ok, well,” Remus sighed, looking at James sympathetically. “Good luck.”

“Thanks, but I think you’ll need it more than I will.” James said, starting to walk in the direction Remus and Lily had come from.

“Oh, I doubt it.” Remus uttered as James and Lily passed him. “Do not make the mistake of underestimating her.”

“I wouldn’t dare.” James promised, with way more emotion in his voice than that statement called for, making Lily’s stomach flip.

Lily closed her eyes, trying to calm her heart rate. There was no need to panic, she just had to breathe.

Breathing turned out to be a huge mistake. It made her aware to things she really did not need to be aware of in that moment, such as that James smelled really good. She couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was he smelled like, but it was something like old parchment and-

In that moment, her brain seemed to wake up momentarily, and a single thought managed to break through her drunken haze.

_Oh, this was very bad._

“Lily, are you okay?” James asked uncertainly, his eyebrows furrowed and eyes filled with worry, and suddenly the thought was gone, never to return.

“Yeah I’m okay why wouldn’t I be okay?” Lily squeaked, speaking incredibly fast.

“It’s just that… you’re not breathing.”

Well, what d’you know, she wasn’t.

“Oh.” She uttered, taking a deep breath. “I didn’t realize.”

“Yeah, I figured.” James gestured at his face with his hand. “You were getting very red in the face.”

“Yep, that’s why that was.” Lily breathed, bringing her gaze down to her feet.

They fell into an uncomfortable silence. But it wasn’t one of those silences in which both parties were desperate to say something but they couldn’t think of a single thing in the entire world, but rather one of those silences in which both of them had so many things to say but where too afraid to say them at risk of making everything extremely awkward.

They walked like that for a good four minutes before James finally decided to say something.

“So, do you mind telling me why on earth you decided to get smashed on top of the astronomy tower, the most obvious place in the ENTIRE CASTLE, with Sirius out of all people?”

“What do you mean ‘out of all people’?!” Lily repeated in an accusatory tone, feeling the unexplainable urge to defend Sirius.

“Oh come on, he’s the worst drunk ever, everybody knows that!”

“ _I_ didn’t know that!”

“How on earth did you not know that? It’s common knowledge!”

Lily, at lack of a better comeback, burst out: “Well… Your face is common knowledge!”

“Wow,” James looked at Lily, who was extremely flushed at this point, with disappointment. “My face is common knowledge?”

“Yeah.”

“Really?”

“Uh-huh.”

“You know, going off what Remus said, I was really expecting more from you, Evans.”

“Oh really? And what’s that you said about undermestimating me?”

James pressed his lips together as hard as he could and closed his eyes, doing everything in his power not to laugh. “Oh, Lily, I’m pretty sure I never said anything about undermestimating you.”

Lily made a disbelieving sound at the back of her throat and looked up at James, mouth ajar. “Did you just- did you just mock me?”

James realized his mistake immediately. “No, of course not.”

“Oh really? Because it sure sounded like you were mocking me.”

“No I just-”

“No, no, it’s fine, if that’s how it is then that’s how it is. Just be warned; I like to play dirty.”

She realized what she had said a moment too late. Eyes widening in panic, she looked at James in hope that he would let it slide, but no such luck.

“Oh you do, do you?”

“Potter, really-”

“And what do you like to do when you… ‘play dirty’? Come on, give me a play-by-play!”

Pouting, she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. He looked so proud she felt like punching him. Instead, she settled for pushing his face away with her hand and grumbling a silent ‘shut up’, at which he laughed.

They were almost at their dormitory. Lily hadn’t been paying much attention to their surroundings, but she recognized them enough to know that they weren’t taking the shortest route.

“Why are we going this way?” She mumbled, suddenly feeling very sleepy.

“To avoid Filch. Nobody patrols after Quidditch matches so Filch takes it upon himself to be extra thorough, which actually makes him easier to avoid if you know the right way.”

“Mm, ‘kay.” Lily uttered, despite not having listened to anything James had said. She rested her head against James’s shoulder unconsciously. She just wanted to close her eyes for a few minutes, she wouldn’t fall asleep. James would be able to continue leading the way, and he would be none the wiser…

James, feeling Lily suddenly get significantly heavier, glanced down to see that she had fallen asleep on him. In any other situation he would probably have reveled in something like this happening, but considering she was drunk and about to pull them both to the ground he was inclined to think that this wasn’t exactly ideal.

“Hey,” he said, slightly panicked, as he shook Lily’s shoulder gently. “Hey you’re slipping.”

“I’m slipping?” Lily questioned incoherently, lifting her head frantically. After surmising that she was in fact in no apparent danger of slipping, she lay her head back down and giggled: “No I’m not, silly, there’s no ice here.”

Biting his tongue in order to keep himself from swearing, James insisted: “Yes, you are, Lily, come on, you can’t fall asleep.”

“You’re the one who’s asleep.”

“Come on, you have to keep talking.”

“Talking? About what?”

“I don’t know, I-”

“Am I the only one who notices how horribly in love Sirius and Remus are?” Lily puzzled, voicing something she had been itching to say for weeks now, months even.

James started to laugh, something Lily hadn’t expected whatsoever. Suddenly much more awake, she whipped her head up to look at James bemusedly.

“What?” Lily questioned in an accusatory tone, assuming James was laughing at her.

“Nothing, it’s just,” He paused to catch his breath. “You have no idea how long I’ve been asking myself the same question.”

Lily almost shrieked from excitement. “So I’m not the only one?!”

“Merlin, of course not, it’s ridiculous! I don’t understand how nobody notices it!”

“Probably because nobody wants to notice, since everybody’s in love with Remus and all.”

James almost stopped in his tracks. “Wait, what?”

“Yeah, I know! You would think I’d be Sirius but nope, everyone’s in love with Remus.”

“Are you one of those people?” James asked, only half jokingly.

“You know, I thought about it once,” Lily admitted. “But then I realized he was in love with his best friend. Think about what a fucked up love triangle that would’ve been.”

“Ah, yes,” James sighed, looking up thoughtfully. “A man and his trusty life companion. And also his wife.”

“Oh, my dream.” Lily said dryly, placing her free hand over her chest. “Can’t we just like, lock them in a broom cupboard together? That usually seems to do the trick.”

“Oh, trust me, I’ve tried, but those two are more stubborn than they seem.”

“Hm,” Lily furrowed her eyebrows, unsatisfied. “But what about-”

“Tried it.”

“Well then how about-”

“Tried it. Lily, No matter what you say, trust me, I’ve already tried it. Those two just have to work it out by themselves.”

Lily, while not content with that answer at all, decided to let it go. They were so close to their dormitory that there was really no point in arguing about it anyway, even though the meddling side of herself was awake and ready for action.

Turned out that that was the only awake side of her, and as soon as she fell silent she started feeling drowsy again. Just as her body was threatening to collapse, James spoke, however Lily had no idea what he said. She saw his lips moving and she heard his voice, but the words he said were a complete mystery to her.

“Wha?”

“We’re here.”

“Oh,” Upon looking up, Lily saw the entrance to their dormitory. That was also when she noticed that they had stopped. “That we are.”

James uttered the password, and the painting guarding the Head Dormitories swung open, granting them entrance. Their climbing through turned out to be an ordeal neither one of them expected, with both of them almost falling over a total of seven times. However they managed to get through with only minor injuries, and were now facing their shared common room.

“Well, I have successfully delivered you to your dormitory.” James stated proudly, as Lily detached herself from him and started slowly walking towards her room.

“My hero!” She applauded, turning around to look at him and throwing her arms up into the air lazily. This turned out to be a mistake, as it threw off her already poor balance and caused her to wobble, threatening to fall. Luckily, James managed to run up to her and steady her in time.

“Okay,” She started to reason, breathing heavily. “Maybe I shouldn’t try to walk backwards.”

“You think?” James said, raising an eyebrow at her questioningly, still holding onto her.

She shot him a glare, but James had to admit it wasn’t nearly as fierce when she was drunk off her ass and could hardly stand up straight without support.

Slowly, Lily freed herself from James’s grasp and continued her very clumsy and very slow journey toward the staircase leading up to their rooms. Once James was sure she wouldn’t fall over, he made his way over to the couches and situated himself on the one opposite the lit fireplace.

“Aren’t you going to sleep?”

“Ah, no, not yet.” James muttered, turning around to look at Lily, who was watching him from the bottom of the stairs, holding on the wall for support. “I just feel like sitting by the fire for a bit.”

Lily looked confused, but didn’t press the matter further.

“Ok.” She nodded and after a few seconds of gazing at James with a thoughtful expression on her face, she turned around and began to climb the stairs.

James stared at the place she had been standing in for a good long while before he turned his attention to his hands, which were resting in his lap in a very relaxed position.

He stayed like that for a long time before he decided to turn towards the fire, so James had assumed that she was long gone by now. Therefore he got quite a shock when he heard her voice behind him.

“Potter?” She was speaking very quietly, and there was a vulnerability in her voice that James had never heard, or had ever expected to hear. She was leaning on the balustrade of the balcony, her eyes fixed on her intertwined hands.

“Yeah?” He prompted uncertainly, searching her face for any indication of what was on her mind right now.

“I think I’m in love with you.”

Before James managed to register what she had said to him, she had disappeared inside her bedroom door, leaving him wide eyed and confused as all hell.

* * *

“Thisis hell. This is literally hell. I have died and gone to hell.”

“Oh, don’t be dramatic, Lily.” Marlene McKinnon, who Lily had directed her complaint at, chided, waving Lily’s statement off as she took another bite of her toast. “I’m sure it’s not that bad.”

“That’s easy for you to say, you don’t get hangovers!” Lily whined, removing the hand her cheek had been resting on and letting her head fall onto her arm.

“What can I say?” Marlene sighed, shooting Lily a charming smile. “Even God must’ve seen how amazing I am and, and graced me with this beautiful gift.” She folded her hands as if she was reciting a prayer and looking up at the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall. “Thank you, Lord for sparing be from looking like a moron every time I drink too much. Amen.”

“I am never drinking again.” Lily vowed, banging her forehead on her arm.

“Oh Lily, you say that every time.”

Mary McDonald, who had arrived at the Gryffindor table just in time to hear Lily’s promise, sat down opposite Marlene and her, and started helping herself to some breakfast.

It was the morning after a Quidditch match so, naturally, the entire hall was filled with students who were in the same, or worse state than Lily’s. Despite there being so many other people who felt like she did, the hall was no less louder. Or dimmer. Or not her bed. Oh how she missed her bed.

Lily groaned pitifully.

“Honestly, you brought this upon yourself.” Mary reminded, slathering jam onto her piece of toast.

Realizing something, Lily picked her head up off the table in order to glare at Mary. “You! Why don’t you have a hangover?!”

“I didn’t drink that much.” Mary shrugged, biting into her toast. She waited until she had swallowed to continue. “A group of us went down to the lake with just a bottle of Firewhisky between us. We didn’t even get through all of it.”

Marlene looked at Mary with a horrified expression. “How many of you were there?!”

“Five.”

“And you didn’t even get through one?!”

Before Mary could respond Lily put up her finger to her mouth and shushed them. “Too loud!” She complained, burrowing her head in her now folded arms.

“Rough night, huh?” An amused voice asked from somewhere above Lily. A very unwelcome, amused voice.

“Go away, Potter” Lily sighed without looking up. She felt someone sit down next to her. She assumed it was James, but upon checking she realized it was Remus, who smiled faux sweetly at her and then proceeded to unfold the Daily Prophet that an owl just dropped in front of him.

James, as she found out, was still standing behind them, a very smug smile plastered on his face. Lily groaned inwardly, knowing that a smug James Potter was never a good thing.

Rolling her eyes, she turned back around to face the table. Without any warning, James Potter’s face showed up next to hers, his mouth level with her ear.

“Are you sure you want me to?” James asked quietly, his breath tickling her neck.

Bewildered, she looked past James at Remus, hoping to get some sort of explanation from him, but he refused to look away from the paper and he seemed to being doing his best not to burst out laughing. Hopelessly, she turned to her friends in search of an answer, but no such luck.

Finally, she turned to James and said: “Potter, I am way too hangover for this, just tell me what you want.”

James’s eyes widened and his smile dropped abruptly, as if her words had made him come to some sort of realization. Putting one leg over the bench, he sat down facing Lily and asked, a hint of panic in his voice: “Wait, Evans, what exactly do you remember from last night?”

She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “I don’t know, drinking with Sirius, you taking me back to our dormitory, but it’s all hazy. Why do you care?”

Not bothering to answer Lily’s question, James threw his other leg over the bench and turned to look at Remus, who seemed to be looking at him in the same wide-eyed way James was looking before.

“What’s that? What the hell is that about?!” Lily demanded, having had enough of the cryptic behavior. Normally she had much more patience, but hangover Lily had a much shorter fuse than normal Lily did.

James turned to her and rested his chin on his hand, smiling widely at her. “Nothing you need to worry about.”

“All right, you know what?” Lily exclaimed, to the distaste of various of her fellow hangover students. “I’ve had enough!”

And with that she got up and started walking down towards the exit to the entrance hall.

“Where are you going?!” Mary called after her.

“Away from here!” Lily shouted back, not bothering to look behind her. However, halfway between the exit and where she had been sitting before, she turned around in order to address James. “You know what, I hate you!”

“Oh really?” James questioned, standing up from his seat and starting to walk towards her slowly. “You do, do you?”

“Yes.”

“You’re sure?”

“Uh-huh.”

“100 percent?”

“Does it look like there’s a doubt in my mind?”

Almost everyone who was within earshot had stopped what they were doing and were listening intently, hanging on to every word. No matter how much they would claim to the contrary, everybody loved ‘The James and Lily Show’, as they have taken to calling it.

“All right,” James said, stopping a few meters away from Lily. “What is it that you hate so much about me?”

Without a moment of hesitation, Lily yelled: “You’re annoying.”

“Obviously.”

“You’re big-headed.”

“Right.”

“You have no consideration for others.”

“Okay.”

“You’re arrogant.”

“Back to this, are we?”

“You never leave well enough alone.”

“Of course.”

“I hate your hair.”

“Attacking my looks now, are we?”

Lily paused for a second, breathing heavily. She was hot, flustered, and she was fairly certain her face was as red as her hair, whereas James was as cool as ever, staring at her confidently. Was was he always so God damn confident?

“You’re cocky.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You’re rude.”

“Sure.”

“You leave your clothes EVERYWHERE.”

“What-”

“I mean, we have our own rooms for a reason, Potter, and it’s so your stuff stays in your room and mine stays in mine!”

“That’s not-”

“And God, the way you expect everyone to be in love with you, how can anyone be so conceited?!”

“Is that all?”

Unbeknownst to them, they had been moving a step closer to each other every time Lily named something, and were now mere inches from each other. However, strangely enough, neither one of them deemed their proximity to each other to be unusual, instead staring at each other, one angrily, the other in amusement.

While this weird staring match was going on, Lily made the mistake of glancing at his lips. He was smirking. That smirk she hated (loved) so much.

“That.” She said, pointing at his lips. “I hate that.”

“What-? My lips? You hate my lips?”

“Your smirk. I hate your smirk. It’s the most frustrating thing I’ve ever seen!”

“So in conclusion…?”

“I hate you. No, despise you. Loathe you. I abhor your existence in my life.”

James’s smile grew infinitely wider as he leaned in, and whispered: “That’s not what you said last night.”

Lily blanched instantly. “What?” She croaked, her throat suddenly very dry.

“I’m just saying, one day you say one thing, another day you say something different...”

“Potter.”

“It can get really confusing!”

“Potter, tell me.”

“Tell you what?”

“Tell me what you know.”

“I know a lot of things, Evans...”

“Tell me what you know or I swear I’ll-”

“What?” James asked an almost-whisper as he stepped yet closer to Lily, so that they were almost touching. “You’ll do what exactly?”

She didn’t know what possessed her to do it. Maybe it was the was he was looking at her, or the way his breath tickled her skin, or maybe it was the way his eyes had met her lips for a split-second, she didn’t know. What she did know, however, was that one moment she was standing outrageously close to James, feeling extremely frustrated (in more ways than one) and the next she had grabbed James’s face and kissed him.

It’s not like she hadn’t thought about it before. Of course she had, many, many times before, but never did she think that her first kiss with James Potter would be in front of their ENTIRE SCHOOL. She almost let that stop her, but then, apparently having gotten over the initial shock, James started kissing her back and suddenly she didn’t care whether it was just the two of them or whether it was in front of the entire population of the UK. She had waited too long for this. And so had the entire student body apparently, according to the CHEERS she heard.

And then there was Sirius.

“HOLY SHIT HAS IT FINALLY HAPPENED?!”

James and Lily broke apart as if they had been shocked, whipping around to find the source of the voice in a panic. Sirius had, as was his nature, arrived to the party incredibly late, so late that he practically missed it. He was standing in the doors to the entrance hall, staring at James and Lily as if Christmas had come early.

“Is this actually happening?!” He turned to a kid sitting at the Gryffindor table. “This is actually happening, right, you can see it too, I’m not hallucinating, right?”

The Gryffindor nodded, and Sirius looked about ready to jump through the ceiling.

“Oh you have no idea how happy this makes me. It was painful watching you two, you are honestly the most oblivious people on the planet.” And then suddenly, as if he had remembered something: “WHERE’S PETER?! He owes me five galleons!”

And then he proceeded to make his way over to where Remus was sitting, grinning stupidly at James and Lily as he passed them.

As he neared the spot previously taken by Lily, Sirius was greeted by a ‘hey, Sirius!’ from Mary and a ‘you missed some shit’ from Marlene.

“Then you’ll have to tell me all about it.” Sirius grinned, sitting down beside Remus.

Mary and Marlene launched into a play-by-play of the morning’s events, pausing to discuss certain moments between themselves and to argue between each other about how it happened. Remus remained wholly silent through the entire conversation, only speaking once Mary and Marlene seemed to be preoccupied with speaking to each other and had forgotten about Sirius.

He leaned over to Sirius, and, quietly so that only Sirius could hear him, said: “’I’m an astronaut and my next mission is to explore Uranus’ Sirius? Really?”

And that was the first time anyone could recall seeing Sirius Black blush.


End file.
